NA TURE 



[November 2, 1899 



I may add for the benefit of those interested that Mr. 

 Tompkins recovered, and is now able to undertake 

 Water-Finding with no other ill results than considerable 

 fatigue. 



Of course, people whose reasoning powers have chiefly 

 been developed in the school or the laboratory find a 

 great difficulty in understanding how this power of 

 water-finding can be explained, and Mr. Tompkins 

 makes the following observation, with which few will 

 disagree : — 



"The refusal of its acceptance (the gift of water- 

 finding) by some is because scientists have not yet been 

 able to fully explain the marvels, or apparent marvels, in 

 connection therewith, as, if an occurrence that has not 

 been explained by scientific methods, must necessarily be 

 a fraud." 



However, this difficulty need not now trouble the 

 public any more because Mr. Tompkins has given a 

 very convincing explanation, which is much more 

 obvious when pointed out than a great deal that is to be 

 found even in these columns or in ordinary scientific 

 books. This is Mr. Tompkins' explanation : — 



" It is a well-known scientific fact that water is a 

 generator of electricity, whether in passing through earth 

 in its natural state or any artificial means employed, 

 creates or produces this power through the various 

 fissures or strata through which it passes. The Expert, 

 medium, or Water-Finder, being, as I have previously 

 stated, of a sensitive nature or organism, the moment he 

 -passes over or comes across these currents, becomes the 

 receiving instrument for the time being, and there is no 

 question but that the means used (viz. the Divining-Rod) 

 becomes for the time being a part of the Diviner as an 

 indicator in so far as are the hands of a clock, watch, 

 weather-glass, steam-gauge, or the automatic weighing 

 engine and scales seen so frequently in public places of 

 resort." 



Then follow two or three pages, too long to copy, 

 and in which the argument would be lost if only extracts 

 were given, but so novel as to be well worth reading, in 

 which Mr. Tompkins proves conclusively, to himself, 

 that electricity or a magnetic influence really does the 

 work. One sentence is beautifully clear : 



" The rod immediately points in the direction in which 

 the current flows up to a certain spot, when the rod rises 

 to its full height, and because it cannot go higher than 

 a vertical position it revolves over and over again." 



It is interesting to follow the scientific method of 

 elimination made use of by Mr. Tompkins when he is 

 finding other things than water. As already explained, 

 the rod will find all manner of things, but a difficulty must 

 be felt in discriminating. This is how it is done. If you 

 are looking for gold and the rod rises, you then put gold 

 in both hands, when the rod will at once fail to indicate 

 anything if it rose for gold, but it will still rise if it rose 

 for water or silver, or murderers, or boundaries, or 

 things other than gold. The same is true for silver. 

 We can only infer that the murderer can be discrim- 

 inated by putting a murderer in each hand, but this is 

 not stated. At any rate, Mr. Tompkins proves the gold 

 story by explaining how he found a sovereign under the 

 floor when the Bath and West of England Show visited 

 Gloucester. 



While on the scientific explanation of the action of the 

 divining rod, it may be worth while to refer to an article 

 NO. 1566, VOL. 61] 



by Mr. John Wallis Mulcaster, late Fellow of the Royal 

 Astronomical Society, and late Member of the London 

 Mathematical Society, quoted by Mr. Tompkins. This 

 gives a good many more details in the proof of the 

 electrical relationship of the divining rod than Mr. 

 Tompkins employed in his more general type of reason- 

 ing. He begins : 



"All minerals and water, more or less, emit an 

 effluvia, composed of minute particles or physical atoms, 

 of the substance they represent." . . . (Then follows 

 an explanation of the reason why the depth can be 

 judged). ..." On arrival at the surface of the earth, 

 those minute particles of metal, &c., having a tendency 

 to ascend in vertical lines, the superincumbent air has 

 also a tendency to press them down, whilst the particles 

 are continuously driven forward by those that follow 

 them. Now the divining rod being composed of a 

 porous and fibrous substance, it follows through the 

 natural order of things, that the physical atoms or 

 minute particles of metal being driven up and down by 

 opposing vertical forces, enter the interstices of the light 

 porous wood, which gives them an easy passage." 



This, of course, explains why the rod gets parallel to 

 the ascending atoms so clearly that the non-scientific 

 countryman would understand it as well as and perhaps 

 even bette,r than a trained physicist. Mr. Mulcaster goes 

 on to show why it is only runnmg water that will act on 

 the twig, stagnant water being no good, but he has not 

 explained why stagnant metals work. I do not feel equal 

 to the task of supplying the omission with confidence, but 

 on the whole it seems most likely that it has to do with 

 " the natural order of things." Mr. Mulcaster is well 

 aware in conclusion that in his lengthened remarks he 

 has exploded certain ideas hitherto held on this subject 

 for generations, and that the " electro-corpuscle " theory 

 provides the explanation of the so-called mysterious 

 action of the divining rod. 



Perhaps enough has been written to give a fair idea of 

 the style and scientific merit of Mr. Tompkins' book. 

 The subject, however, should not be dismissed here. 

 There is no question but that a large number of people of 

 every class, except, perhaps, the purely logical, if there 

 is such a class, are firmly persuaded that the Professional 

 Expert Water-Finder with his Divining Rod can and does 

 find water where ordinary folk, including geologists, fail ; 

 and what is more, that in quite a limited locality will, 

 where sinking has failed to produce useful results, make 

 their examination, find no water where failure has resulted, 

 yet within a few yards assert that abundant water is to 

 be found, which is verified on trial. Mr. Tompkins says 

 the subject must be approached with an open mind, and 

 he refers occasionally to X-rays and spiritualists, I 

 hope in the following observations that I shall appear 

 to have done so with a mind sufficiently open, but not 

 gaping open so wide as to be practically turned inside 

 out, a state which at any rate is conducive to sport when 

 chasing spooks guarded by impostors. 



Mr. Tompkins, who in many respects appears to be a 

 very able exponent of the Diviner's Gift (not Art) explains 

 how in walking over the ground he feels a sensation, a 

 faculty possessed by only very few people, when he comes 

 to the neighbourhood of running water, and that this 

 sensation gets stronger as he approaches the " Head of 

 the Spring," so that without any stick at all he could be 



